New iMac

I have an older family iMac (21.5") that needs replacement. Its a 2008 machine that I got as a refurb 3 years ago. I've maxed out the RAM and still page out pretty frequently and see beach ball way to often. Lately I been getting random hard freezes and shut downs. I suspect that the HDD is going out but I'm not sure. Either way, I think its just time to replace it with something modern.

Here's the rub. I'm not real crazy about the new iMacs. I could care less about how thin the damn thing is when viewed from the side. Lighter is nice, but I know exactly where it is going to go and I don't think I'll move it once its there. The form factor changes of the latest iMacs aren't a priority to me. But I am really intrigued by the addition of the Fusion drives. So I'm thinking of getting a BTO with a Fusion drive and 16 gbs of RAM (I'm also annoyed that this is not user upgradable) vs another refurb of the previous gen iMacs.

How are the Fusion drives performing for those who have them and what's the hive's opinion on the latest generation of iMacs?

I've got a new 27", pretty much maxed out, save for the top end GPU, and I love it. Crazy amounts of power (frankly it's overkill for most of what I'm doing), and it's incredibly silent. Even encoding video I haven't really had the fans spin up, which is a nice change from my old MBP.

The integrated RAM on the 21" is a downer, but I opened up mine to put in an SSD (I value silence over the capacity of a spinning disk, even with Fusion's benefits), and it's less scary than it sounds. Accessing the RAM internally would definitely be a bit trickier than the drive bay, but still doable.

If you can swallow either paying Apple's RAM costs, or doing it yourself (or perhaps finding an authorized service centre to do it for you), I'd say definitely go for the new ones.

How did you deal with the adhesive? Specifically, how well did it reseal when you closed it back up?

I used some 3M 4926 VHB tape (this specifically) and it sealed up quite well. I only used 4 smaller strips, rather than all around the perimeter like Apple's tape, since reading in another forum the 3M tape is a fair bit stronger than Apple's.

I have also seen official Apple tape kits being sold on Ebay for reasonable prices. If I ever need to bring mine in for warranty or resell it, I'll probably reseal it with that.

There's a big thread over at the MacRumors forums detailing opening up the new iMacs if you're curious about it.